Joe Conason | The New York Observer

And Now They're Coming for Newt

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:39:14 -0500

When Newt Gingrich warns Republicans that they are making a grave “mistake” by driving out moderates and enforcing the bizarre orthodoxy of the far right, the novelty of his remarks alone is stunning. This is a politician who is no stranger himself to the wilder shores of extremism, a populist and a purist who rose to great power against the G.O.P. establishment, and a demagogue whose lexicon lacerated the “Democrat Party” as decadent, elitist,...

A Winning Compromise?

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:47:56 -0400

The Senate leadership’s decision to include the “public option” in its health care reform legislation seemed almost miraculous, especially to anyone who believed the hundreds of obituaries recited in the media over the past several months. But by acting on their convictions rather than their fears, the Democrats could ultimately find that the politics of consumer choice can be turned to their advantage for years to come.

An Obscene Protest

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:02:19 -0400

Popular disgust over the fat premiums that financial executives bestow upon themselves is burgeoning, and rightly so. Those Wall Street piggy banks are filling up with billions upon billions of government-subsidized dollars.

But anyone infuriated by the grossly inflated compensation of the masters of finance should check out the incredible earnings of the top executives in the health insurance business. They’re among the most highly paid suits in the country—not owing to any skill...

Time to Yank the A.M.A.'s License

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:30:00 -0400

Campaigning to build the widest possible consensus for reform of the nation’s health care system, Barack Obama told the delegates of the American Medical Association that he wants their support, too. Persuasive and always polite, the president did not mention the embarrassing truth about his hosts—namely, that the A.M.A. has undermined universal care with mindless zeal for more than 70 years. The real question is not what the A.M.A. will support or whether the...

Who's Afraid of Public Insurance?

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:07:00 -0400

Within the coming weeks, Americans will begin to consider critical issues concerning the future of health care for themselves and their children, including universal coverage, taxation of benefits, computerized records and the controlling of costs. But before the debate commences in Congress and the media, big insurance and pharmaceutical companies are lobbying frantically (and spending millions of dollars) to foreclose the possibility of the most promising aspect of health care reform: a public insurance...

Domestic Terrorism, by Any Standard

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:45:00 -0400

If right-wing broadcasters like Bill O’Reilly don’t want to be blamed when someone murders a person they have repeatedly demonized—as in the case of George Tiller, the doctor shot dead in his Wichita, Kans., church last Sunday by an anti-abortion zealot—then they ought to moderate their rhetoric. No doubt they will choose their words more carefully for a while, as Mr. O’Reilly did in the immediate aftermath of the Tiller killing—and they will whine...

Obama's Pick Is a Winner, Already

Tue, 26 May 2009 14:11:00 -0400

Choosing Sonia Sotomayor as his first nominee to the United States Supreme Court will allow Barack Obama to prove three important things. As a politician, he is not afraid of a fight. As a constitutional lawyer, he is willing and able to defend his conception of that living document. And as president, he is prepared to brush aside the phony consensus of Washington’s gossipy elite. Whatever battle ensues over the nomination of Ms. Sotomayor, a...

What Cheney Said, What Cheney Did

Tue, 19 May 2009 13:18:00 -0400

Defending their record in office these past eight years, figures from the last administration seem especially touchy on the subject of torture. Led by the former vice president, Dick Cheney, they have argued that there was no torture, preferring more vague and delicate terms such as “enhanced interrogation” or simply “the program.” They have insisted that any harsh tactics were used only to extract “actionable intelligence” from recalcitrant terrorists in order to save “thousands,...

Beware the Bad-Faith Reformer

Tue, 12 May 2009 15:02:00 -0400

Uplifting as it was to see insurance executives, pharmaceutical manufacturers, hospital officials and doctors gather at the White House on May 11, pledging cooperation toward health care reform, nothing they said or did was inconsistent with precisely the opposite objective. According to the famed pollster who is helping Republicans in Congress to block reform, in fact, the first critical step toward stopping real change is pretending to support it. “You simply MUST be vocally and...

Republicans Wonder How to Sell a Toxic Brand

Tue, 05 May 2009 12:21:00 -0400

Hoping to re-brand their declining party, a group of prominent Republicans recently launched a national “listening tour,” presumably as an exercise in market research. They would like to know why voters—and especially younger voters—increasingly reject the G.O.P. They want to “ask the American people what their hopes and dreams are” while engaging in a “wide-open policy debate.” And they believe that all Americans deserve “access to high-quality, affordable health care,” and “a high-quality education...not...

Obama Combats an Epidemic of Ignorance

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:15:00 -0400

In the turbulent imagination of the hard-core conservative, American foreign policy should be about telling off the rest of the planet. According to the right-wing mind-set, a manly foreign policy would curtail any effort at seeking influence abroad, cut off assistance to developing countries, forget about improving our global image and, above all, withdraw from the existing international organizations, especially the United Nations, which is nothing more than a gargantuan waste of money and...

Reagan Talked to Dictators, Too

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:54:00 -0400

Few aspects of American politics are as ridiculous and dangerous as the right-wing urge to substitute macho posturing for foreign policy. That irrepressible habit surfaces constantly now that President Obama is in the Oval Office, most recently when he shook hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez at the Summit of the Americas, a smiling moment that provoked calls for impeachment among the most deranged conservatives. Such emotional excesses arise from deep insecurities, of course, and...

The Tea Party Brigade: Obama Couldn't Ask for Better Enemies

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:26:00 -0400

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An Extremist’s Nightmare

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:55:00 -0400

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No More Refuge for Scoundrels

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:04:00 -0400

While the leaders of the world’s largest economies debate stimulus and regulation in London, let us hope they do not forget the compelling questions of crime and punishment. Rooted in the most massive swindles in financial history, the global crisis offers an unprecedented opportunity to prosecute the criminals whose machinations steered us toward disaster—and to deter them in the future. Unfolding on the very doorstep of the G-20 meeting in London and in Washington is...

Blaming Obama for a Bush Economy

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:48:00 -0400

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Be Like Cuomo: Call AIG's Bluff

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:52:00 -0400

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Dumbest Proposal Ever?

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:29:00 -0400

If President Barack Obama’s response to the economic crisis is imperfect, as he acknowledges, and if the Congressional Democrats leave much to be desired as well, then Americans can at least be thankful that the nation’s fate has not been consigned to the frozen minds on the other side of the aisle. Things are bad, and seem very likely to get worse—but the Republicans seem determined to plunge us into a real depression, gambling...

Dumbest Proposal Ever?

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:33:47 -0400

Democrats, Root for Rush

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:01:00 -0500

Once upon a time, our conservatives liked to say that “ideas matter.” They attributed this pithy slogan to their idol Ayn Rand, venerated author of Atlas Shrugged and The Virtue of Selfishness, and they tried to live by it, generating books, papers and legislative proposals by the dozen. Although many of their theories later proved flimsy, they at least appeared to address real problems with fresh thinking. But ideas no longer matter—and in fact, they’re...

Democrats, Root for Rush

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:00:54 -0500

Once upon a time, our conservatives liked to say that “ideas matter.” They attributed this pithy slogan to their idol Ayn Rand, venerated author of Atlas Shrugged and The Virtue of Selfishness, and they tried to live by it, generating books, papers and legislative proposals by the dozen. Although many of their theories later proved flimsy, they at least appeared to address real problems with fresh thinking.

But ideas no...

Democrats: Root for Rush

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:19:30 -0500

Once upon a time, our conservatives liked to say that “ideas matter.” They attributed this pithy slogan to their idol Ayn Rand, venerated author of Atlas Shrugged and The Virtue of Selfishness, and they tried to live by it, generating books, papers, and legislative proposals by the dozen. Although many of their theories later proved flimsy, they at least appeared to address real problems with fresh thinking.

But...

Obama Pushes Universal Health Foes to the Margins

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:11:30 -0500

At the brink of global ruin, many Americans suddenly seem willing to consider sensible ideas that were always deemed unthinkable, and to reject foolish notions that were once deemed brilliant. Soon we may be mature enough to observe how other developed countries solved problems that have baffled us for generations.

Nationalizing major banks, temporarily at least, is a radical notion that today looks far more prudent than...

Pushed to the Margins, Finally

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:14:07 -0500

Nationalizing major banks, temporarily at least, is a radical notion that today looks far more prudent than handing over hundreds...

The Obstructionists Lost

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:17:48 -0500

With President Obama’s signature affixed to the economic stimulus bill, his landmark victory can be put in proper political context. Regardless of that bill’s manifest imperfections and the messy legislative process, the new administration achieved a difficult objective on the tightest possible schedule. His Republican opponents congratulate themselves for remaining unified in defeat and whine about the president’s refusal to capitulate to them—but in fact it is they who have failed in the initial...

So Much for Compromise

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:09:18 -0500

Having allowed his Republican opponents to dominate the economic debate for two weeks as his stimulus proposal languished, President Obama used his first news conference to rebut them—coolly and civilly, yet without leaving any doubt that he can strike back harder if necessary. He drew the lines that had to be drawn, calling out the opposition’s hypocrisy on spending and identifying conservatives whose answer is to do nothing (except cut taxes for the rich,...

The Upside-Down Stimulus Skeptics

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:07:59 -0500

Ignorance and mythology are out-shouting facts and wisdom in public discussion of President Barack Obama’s plan to stimulate the depressed economy. Excessive airtime is devoted to the prejudices of cable hosts and radio personalities who regurgitate ideas they barely understand and who haven’t entertained an original thought since the Reagan era. Urgent action that could prevent enormous suffering and damage is delayed by all the same old agendas that have dominated Washington for the...

Bill and Vladimir

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 05:53:55 -0500

DAVOS - Within days of Hillary Clinton's confirmation as secretary of state, her husband already appears to be applying his skills and connections in the service of the new administration's diplomacy.

Upon arriving here on Wednesday afternoon, he conducted a series of quiet meetings with foreign leaders that culminated in an intense late-night discussion with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The two former presidents met at a Sheraton hotel where Putin held a private party,...

Let the Limbaughs Whine

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:41:27 -0500

How fortunate for Barack Obama that Rush Limbaugh, big radio personality and leader of the instinctual far right, has yet to retire to a sunny island with his bottles of pills. At a moment when Republicans on Capitol Hill feel they must pretend to negotiate with the popular new president over spending to revive the economy, he blurted out what they really feel.

Speaking on his daily broadcast and...

Obama and the New Center

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:26:55 -0500

On the eve of Barack Obama’s ascension to power, at candlelit dinners across Washington sponsored by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, the designated theme was bipartisanship. From the speeches delivered to the choice of honorees, which included Senator John McCain, the former secretary of state Colin Powell, and the incoming vice president, Joe Biden, the new administration expressed its fond wish for a return to the respect and civility of a bygone era. As Mr....

The Stimulus Killers

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:12:16 -0500

Would it be rude to ask whether the Republicans have any new proposals to save the country from this worsening recession? The question arises not because anyone expects the minority party to burst forth with creative ideas, but because conservatives in Congress and the media seem so determined to thwart or stall the economic stimulus plans of President-elect Barack Obama.

To listen to the Senate Republicans and their...

Hypocrisy From the Party of Pork

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:03:09 -0500

As the government contemplates spending very large sums of money, it is reassuring to know that somebody still worries about waste. Or it would be reassuring, if only that somebody were not Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, who promises that he and his fellow Republicans will “protect taxpayers against the rush to spend their money.”

This loud pledge of thrift and transparency by the G.O.P. leadership might be...

Nixon Admitted What Cheney Won't

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:30:12 -0500

To understand the philosophy of government that Dick Cheney brought to Washington over the past seven years, it is most instructive to see Frost/Nixon, with Frank Langella's remarkable reanimation of Tricky Dick for a generation that never knew him. In Nixon's famous conversation with David Frost, there came a moment when the old reprobate uttered the truth—a truth that Cheney still prefers to obscure when he talks about illegal surveillance, torture and other violations...

Where Did the Scandal Go?

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:30:39 -0500

"Anti-climactic..." sighed my colleague Jason Horowitz when he described the Clinton Foundation donor list released on Wednesday morning. Surely that was an apt description of a document so widely predicted to contain scandalous dynamite, which turned out to have all the explosive force of a slowly deflating balloon. "So much of this has already been public because Clinton makes news wherever he goes and people knew where the money was coming from," noted Larry...

The Matter of Caroline's Qualifications

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:21:08 -0500

Caroline Kennedy made her political debut in Manhattan almost exactly 10 years ago, when she showed up as the surprise speaker at a “teach-in” against the impeachment of Bill Clinton at New York University Law School. Her speech on that occasion was not memorable, nor did she display great passion as she read it, but none of that mattered. Her presence electrified what would otherwise have been a mundane gathering of liberal intellectuals,...

A Ruinous Bias Against Helping Detroit

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:04:58 -0500

Nearly every current poll shows that most Americans oppose federal assistance to General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, which must be worrying news for members of Congress as they ponder whether to support the proposed $15 billion emergency loan package. Political analysts warn of the consequences for lawmakers who support the “bailout everyone loves to hate.”

Like any survey that asks people to answer simply yes or no, however, the polling on the...

Why Shinseki May Be Obama's Smartest Choice

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:55:57 -0500

Naming Eric Shinseki as Secretary of Veterans Affairs, which came as a surprise to most observers, was among the most astute and farsighted political decisions announced by the Obama transition team to date. By definition, a retired four-star Army general is qualified for this post, and this particular general carries a powerful symbolic value because he stood up publicly against the Bush administration’s flawed occupation plan for Iraq and paid a price for it.

But...

The Holder Nomination: Rich Story, Poor Coverage

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:38:07 -0500

Eric Holder’s status as designated target among the Obama nominees, suggested initially in a tendentious editorial in National Review, was confirmed yesterday in a front-page New York Times story about his role in the Marc Rich pardon. Expect to hear much more from Republicans explaining why poor Holder proved his unworthiness to serve as attorney general when he allowed President Clinton to do what the Constitution enabled him to do anyway.

The Times article, written...

Not a Team of Rivals at All

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:31:58 -0500

When the journalistic pack bites into a tasty cliché they often refuse to let go, lazily chewing and regurgitating a phrase like “team of rivals” long after the flavor is gone. Derived from the Doris Kearns Goodwin book on Lincoln’s cabinet, that morsel had scant relevance to the cabinet being assembled by Barack Obama, as the president-elect bravely tried to explain when he introduced his national security team.

But as Mr. Obama learned...

The Gates Debate

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:14:52 -0500

The Gates debate is over, but Barack Obama's decision to keep Secretary of Defense Robert Gates upset many of the president-elect's progressive supporters -- including Chris Bowers of Open Left, usually a very astute analyst, and my friend Greg Sargent at TPM. But their objections seem to be based on a misunderstanding of both Gates himself and of the Defense Secretary's likely role in an Obama administration. As I noted earlier, Gates represents anything...

Obama’s Unoriginal, Shrewd Choices

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:18:14 -0500

While Barack Obama introduced the first members of his economic team, a wailing noise could be heard somewhere in the background. That was the sound of complaining liberals, who worry that the president-elect is already surrendering the progressive moment to centrists—the kind of post-election disappointment with which they are all too familiar.

Looking over the names of the new Obama appointees to important positions in the Treasury and...

The R.F.K. Bridge, At Last

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:35:07 -0500

When the children of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy came to the family dinner table every evening, they were expected to know a poem by heart. So it was fitting when his daughter Kerry recited a classic poem of Langston Hughes this morning, at the marvelous ceremony rededicating the former Triborough Bridge in her father's name.

That poem concludes ''Let America be America again''—and there was a powerful sense of that possibility...

The Case for Robert Gates

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:22:42 -0500

As Barack Obama makes his way through the transition to power, he is learning the steps of an old dance. Having promised change, he now surrounds himself with experience. Having poured scorn not only on the Bush administration but at times on the Clinton administration as well, he now welcomes those who served his Democratic predecessor, including the former first lady who ran against him. And having roundly denounced current foreign and military policies,...

Obama's Clinton Initiative

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:26:43 -0500

Why would Barack Obama invite Hillary Clinton into a serious discussion of her potential appointment as secretary of state without reaching his own conclusions about the risks and benefits of that possibility? That seems frivolous and foolish, neither of which describe the manner in which the president-elect is conducting the transition. Unless he has made his first big mistake, the likelihood is that he and his team were prepared to make the offer before...

Boogie Man on TV

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:50:21 -0500

Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story—touted as one of the year’s very best political documentaries when it played at the Democratic and Republican conventions earlier this year—aired on PBS Frontline last night. Yes, I ought to have mentioned that before airtime rather than a day late, especially because most readers surely missed its theatrical run. But happily PBS will air the film again this week. In New York it will appear on WNET...

Who's Afraid of a Filibuster?

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:56:37 -0500

While the ultimate occupants of three United States Senate seats are yet to be determined in Alaska, Georgia, and Minnesota, chances seem small that Democrats will increase their new majority to 60 seats – the supermajority that insures against a successful filibuster. So the same Republicans who once complained about the use of that legislative weapon by the opposition now brandish it in warning to President-elect Barack Obama.

Nobody can doubt that the Republican remnant...

The Conservative Decline, Continued

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:49:35 -0500

Today’s Salon column examines the pretensions of the Rove generation of conservative activists – and how the “emerging Democratic majority” predicted six years ago brought those great expectations to grief.

What have our dear wingers learned from this sobering experience? There’s a deep lesson for them in the public rejection of Sarah Palin, but they don’t seem to be getting it.

The best single essay on the conservative betrayal of their own intellectual tradition -- and...

Idiot's Delight

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:31:41 -0500

The New York Times features an exhaustive report today on the feuding between the McCain and Palin camps, but it is best savored while listening to Carl Cameron of Fox News Channel, who finally spills what he has been hearing for months from McCain insiders or "folks" as he calls them. This quote proves that Cameron has an unappreciated talent for understatement:

We are told by folks that she didn’t know what countries were in...

Obama and the New American Middle

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:22:43 -0500

When George W. Bush looks back someday on the wreckage of the past eight years, even he may someday realize that he missed his most important political opportunity in the months after 9/11. Despite his lackluster performance on that day, Americans stood with him as the symbol of the nation, displaying a steadfast and sober unity we had not felt for decades. He betrayed us all by discarding that spirit. Instead he followed the...

Waiting, Cheerful and Subdued, With Kids

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:22:09 -0500

Nowhere in this country is the vote more certain to favor Barack Obama than in downtown Manhttan, where we voted this morning. Here, there are no contested races down-ballot to draw voters to the polls. But the lines in every polling place are the longest I have ever seen – out the door and around the block, hours after most people have gone to work. Many parents brought their children along with them...